So I wonder that what is the mechanism of convert the audio signal to transform the signal in the CAT cable? how dose HDMI extender work? Tks everybody.

It's electronics based. It's not as simple as a diode or resistor in place, but a microchip which has been designed performs the conversion of the 19-pin HDMI connection for the extender you are using. Different chips from different companies perform differently, and to this point, there is not one chip manufacturer which stands out as much as Valens does with their HDBT chips. To the point that all major manufacturers with the highest level of respect in the industry have standardized on HDBT as their cat-x extender solution of choice.

So, you aren't going to just 'recreate' these extenders by soldering a few locally available electronics pieces together.

I was using Niles C5HDMI baluns and a Samsung UN46C6300SFXZA with cable box, apple tv, roku, worked fine for a few years. the cat5 run is about 30ft. Now it does not work at all. i just tried it with two new TVs and they did not work. I tried it with different cat5 cables. I tried it with different HDMI cables.
I tried it with different baluns, kanex HDEXT50M, it didn't work.

Thanks for the info on the termination standards. I would add that now all cable is created equal, so Cat 6 or Cat 5e depends on the cable manufacturer. I only use Belden, and would put their Cat 5e variants up against most other Cat 6 cables, especially for longer runs. They publish test results for their cable, so you can see what each particular model was rated at. That is my $.02.

Hi I am new here and start switch my home to HDMI . I have 4 tv in different location and over 40 feet from the media center , I bought a 4x4 matrix HDMI switch from Monoprice ,4HDMI in and 4 HDMI out , then I bought a Sabrent HDMI extender over cat5e after hook them up I receiver signal ok but the video black out for 2 seconds then come back and keep doing that
If I take the output from the Switch and connect direct to the tv then it is ok , only when I use the extender then the video is black out every 2 or 3 seconds and come back and keep doing like that .
Cat5e is 50' in length .
Any suggestion will be appreciate .

When I cabled my house in 2007, I bought a 500' spool of Belden Cat 5e, but for the smaller projects since then, I have been buying remnants of Belden Cat 5e from Markertek.com; I have not used Cat 6 except for pre-made patch cords from Monoprice. For the female wall plate (key-stone) terminations, I used Leviton purchased from Home Depot. I did try some Monoprice ones, but did not like them at all. When I make a male RJ-45 termination, I have a bag of clear plastic connectors (don't know the name), and use a standard RJ-45 crimp tool.

A lot of the Belden Cat 5e is usually good for up to 350 MHz bandwidth, and they publish their test results. I figure for my gigabit network with alot of existing Cat 5e, that would be fine. If I was wiring my house today, I would be using Cat 6 or 7, and just bite the bullet for the extra cost.

Those transfer rates and bandwidth are enough to handle 1080P and 3D with no problems up to 100 feet i'm guessing.

Unless the transceivers you're using are designed to use the extra bandwidth, it's a waste. I don't believe HDBaseT compliant equipment will do so. Maybe there's something newer/better out there that will.

I was a die-hard component video guy, but HDMI is rapidly becoming unavoidable thanks to the content-producer fetish for copy protection (despite the fact that it has never prevented copying, but I digress). I recently started the painful switch to HDMI over CATx cable and the results have been fairly miserable so far. I run a single source from an AV closet distributed to 8 locations. The shortest run is about 30 feet, so right off the bat you know we're in for a good time. I have a couple audio-only runs but the longest video run is somewhere in the vicinity of 140 feet.

I'm switching my office and parking lot to a bunch of high-def IP cameras, and the guy I hired to pull wire suggested this bulk CAT 6E STP wire from eBay. I was skeptical but now that I have a couple spools in-hand, the quality seems good, the jacket is very pliable and it seems like good-quality wiring at a decent price. I am also using these pass-through connectors which are fairly high-quality.

We needed about 1600 ft of cable for the office cameras, so I plan to use the remaining cable at home to start replacing the cheap, stiff, thin-jacketed CAT5 junk my low-volt guys put in the walls when the house was built almost 10 years ago, and if those replacements work, I'll be picking up a few more spools for quality-time in the attics come this winter.

In terms of equipment, I am starting with the Monoprice 8x1 HDMI switch pushing thru a 1x8 Monoprice splitter/balun setup to the included output baluns. Results have been usable but mediocre so far, but as I noted, my in-wall wiring is junk. I am using pre-made Monoprice CAT6 UTP for the final wall-to-balun connections and surprisingly that is often enough to overcome signal problems up to 720p (when I experiment with CAT5 wall-to-balun), though 1080i at any speed stumbles often, and 1080p is nearly non-functional.

My pool area and garage have stereo audio only (for now, the garage is an even longer run!), so I'm using this HDMI audio splitter to run stereo audio over a separate distribution amp and some old ETS-LAN CAT5 composite/stereo baluns I've had forever. The splitter is pass-through and surprisingly, HDMI output quality and reliability seems to noticeably improve when the switch feeds through this device to the splitter/balun.

so i have no signal when connecting my pc (pc just don't identify that something hooked in hdmi port) , but when i connect my blue ray player or android box with hdmi instead of PC, all works perfectly and i have excellent picture on all tv's

so i have no signal when connecting my pc (pc just don't identify that something hooked in hdmi port) , but when i connect my blue ray player or android box with hdmi instead of PC, all works perfectly and i have excellent picture on all tv's

how i can get work this system with pc?

P.S. when i connect my pc directly to lcd monitor by hdmi it works.

What brand/model is the PC (particularly if it's a laptop) and/or the graphics card?

PCs and laptops seem to be the most picky about all the handshaking needed to establish a connection. I have one laptop that just won't connect over HDMI, I have another one that will connect (directly) to some of my TVs but not others, and I have a third that connects to anything through a complicated series of switches and amplifiers. And two of those three laptops are identical models. HDMI is a train-wreck.

My run is about the same--30ft or so. I use a DVDO Edge and have found it to be every bit as finicky as the OP.

Could any users subscribed to this thread drop back in and give us an update as to what they're using that works, and for how long they've been using it?

Reading that it works great is one thing. Reading that it's still going after a year or two is what seems essential here. The last page of reviews for that Monoprice Balun is filled with people who've had them die just outside of warranty.

I am still running the HDMI XTENDEX from NTI. It is extremely expensive, but it hasn't failed me yet. I know this option will be out of most people's price points however.

I probably see no more than about five dropouts per year (yes you read that right).. However, I am only running cat5e and therefore am NOT running deep color. I'm running standard 8-bit color at 1080p out of the DVDO Edge to a Panasonic plasma.. It has been a solid performer.

I ended up buying an Atlona HDbase-T transmitter/receiver pair, AT-HDTX + AT-HDRX, from an ebay seller named BZB Express, $250 total. Transmits power to the receiver over the category cable. Works great.

I have an Hdmi over cat5e extender, the run is about 15 feet. The signal works on the TV but the picture tends to jump. I am assuming this is a signal acceptance issue. Maybe the converter is having an issue accepting the signal from the cable box and transferring it to the TV. I am not sure what to do the converter box I have is for up to 150 feet and made for 1080p.

The cable box is going into a receiver and the receiver has one out that goes into the TV.

I am still running the HDMI XTENDEX from NTI. It is extremely expensive, but it hasn't failed me yet. I know this option will be out of most people's price points however.

I probably see no more than about five dropouts per year (yes you read that right).. However, I am only running cat5e and therefore am NOT running deep color. I'm running standard 8-bit color at 1080p out of the DVDO Edge to a Panasonic plasma.. It has been a solid performer.

good luck,
..dane

It sounds like we have pretty much the same setup. Can I ask how often you use your TV? For me, five dropouts a year would be about once each time I use it! This year has been an exception though--looking forward to putting some hard hours on that plasma!

That unit claims to deliver uncompressed HDMI. It must be encoding it to transmit over a single CAT6 cable though, correct? Doesn't HDMI have 19 active pins? CAT6 cable has, what, four pairs so 8 pins available?

I worry about the delay / lag involved with the encoding process. Have you tested for it? Do you play video games at all?

Quote:

Originally Posted by politby

I ended up buying an Atlona HDbase-T transmitter/receiver pair, AT-HDTX + AT-HDRX, from an ebay seller named BZB Express, $250 total. Transmits power to the receiver over the category cable. Works great.

Ditto--any idea what the delay inherent in HDbase-T would be? I see claims of 10 microseconds online--I wonder if anyone has tested it.

It would be great if you could get a cheap, powered balun unit with a build-in Redmere chip on the receiving end. Would seem to be the cheapest solution and avoid those nasty dropouts.

It sounds like we have pretty much the same setup. Can I ask how often you use your TV? For me, five dropouts a year would be about once each time I use it! This year has been an exception though--looking forward to putting some hard hours on that plasma!

That unit claims to deliver uncompressed HDMI. It must be encoding it to transmit over a single CAT6 cable though, correct? Doesn't HDMI have 19 active pins? CAT6 cable has, what, four pairs so 8 pins available?

I worry about the delay / lag involved with the encoding process. Have you tested for it? Do you play video games at all?

Ditto--any idea what the delay inherent in HDbase-T would be? I see claims of 10 microseconds online--I wonder if anyone has tested it.

It would be great if you could get a cheap, powered balun unit with a build-in Redmere chip on the receiving end. Would seem to be the cheapest solution and avoid those nasty dropouts.

Ha ha ha.. sorry, I should have clarified. Our set is THE television in the house.. (well, there's a small one in the bedroom but it's more to fall asleep to or when someone's home sick) So it gets multiple hours per day.. I actually juts checked yesterday and it has 7,307 hours on it.. That's roughly 4-5 hours per day for the last four years.. ROUGH estimate..

I love video games, but don't get much a chance to play. We have a Wii though, which may not be quiet as sensitive to delay as others because we don't play all the MMO games like call of duty or anything like that.. If there is delay, we've easily adapted to it.. I have no easy way to measure it though.

Can someone recommend a reliable HDMI over Cat 6 option for me? I just finished my existing home installation using the inexpensive Monoprice plates, and the longest run (~150') flickers during 1080p material. 720p works fine, and the other 5 shorter runs all work fine as well. This TV is for 3D material though, so I do need the higher bandwidth. Is there a better option to use for this one room? Thanks

HDBT was developed by a bunch of the industry heavyweights and 'modulates' the full HDMI signal onto the CAT cable without any signal loss - I haven't received any complaints as yet from Gamers who are using our HDBT-lite extender - you can always return it if there were to be a problem - http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI_extender_HD70STPEX.html

HDBT was developed by a bunch of the industry heavyweights and 'modulates' the full HDMI signal onto the CAT cable without any signal loss - I haven't received any complaints as yet from Gamers who are using our HDBT-lite extender - you can always return it if there were to be a problem - http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI_extender_HD70STPEX.html

I think I'm going to wait for the settling of HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2. Will this product line see integration of these specs?

Do you have a unit that also integrates USB (so I could extend a gaming PC and still use wired USB controllers). I don't see anything like that listed...

So I've been trying to catch up on this thread - I haven't been following it, although I have many miles of Cat6 in my home that drive all of my displays. I currently have 9 displays that are being run by Monoprice 8008 HDMI wall plates, and two runs of CAT6 UTP. The shortest are about 30 feet, and the two longest around about 130 feet.

What I've found is that almost all of my components (satellite receivers, avr, etc) do not have enough current to drive the signal. If I go from the component to the wallplate, it won't work for 75% of my components. The one "strong" component (blu-ray player) works.

That led me to try "amplification". I tried a few different devices. The one that seems to work is the Monoprice 8154 Splitter / Amplifier. If I go from component --> 8154 --> wallplate, then things start working (and has been working for almost 2 years). This has led to an abundance of 8154 units in my rack, as well as a ton of wall-warts to drive them all.

As I started thinking about the "problem", it all seems to boil down to the amperage of the HDMI signal (guess). That made me think about inserting additional voltage, which leads me to my question.

As I started thinking about the "problem", it all seems to boil down to the amperage of the HDMI signal (guess). That made me think about inserting additional voltage, which leads me to my question.

I'm quite curious to hear people's feedback on such a device. My Wii U outputs a very problematic signal--perhaps it is weak. Even running it through two different powered monoprice HDMI switches, it drops the signal intermittently. Even with Redmere cables.

I wonder if providing a bit of extra voltage before the signal travels any real distance would make a difference...

I'm quite curious to hear people's feedback on such a device. My Wii U outputs a very problematic signal--perhaps it is weak. Even running it through two different powered monoprice HDMI switches, it drops the signal intermittently. Even with Redmere cables.

I've ordered one of these, and I'm going to test it out.

Also, just to clarify, the *only* monoprice splitter that I've gotten to work is the 8154, as it is also an "amplifier". All of the other HDMI splitters and HDMI Matrix units that I've tried from monoprice fail to give me enough signal to use their 8008 baluns, unless I put an 8154 behind the output of the matrix, in which case it bumps up the signal enough that it works (that's how I'm currently running).

Also, just to clarify, the *only* monoprice splitter that I've gotten to work is the 8154, as it is also an "amplifier". All of the other HDMI splitters and HDMI Matrix units that I've tried from monoprice fail to give me enough signal to use their 8008 baluns, unless I put an 8154 behind the output of the matrix, in which case it bumps up the signal enough that it works (that's how I'm currently running).

I've got item 4088, which claims "This switch features a built-in HDMI signal equalizer, which helps compensate for weak signals." I've found it is very picky, and when combined with anything else (video processor, receiver, CAT5e baluns) I get a dropped signal.

I also have item 5312, which makes no extraordinary claims but works better in the same scenario. However it is still unusable with my Wii U.

I'm curious if you had the same units...

I also have the 8008 wall plates but have yet to install them (don't have the tool to terminate CAT5e as male!). I used 8121 instead, and they burned up after about 8 months of use. Now they just drop the signal continually. I have a 30ft HDMI cable laying across the floor until I figure this out...

Although I've initially shied away from the price of HDBaseT stuff, I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with cheap Monoprice junk. Their cables? Great experiences. Their electronics? Not so much.

I have never tried the 4088, so I can't say about that particular product

Quote:

Originally Posted by HDgaming42

I also have item 5312, which makes no extraordinary claims but works better in the same scenario. However it is still unusable with my Wii U.

I'm curious if you had the same units...

I have however tried the 5312 which you mentioned. The 5312 doesn't seem to have enough power by itself. The only way that I can get this to work is Source --> 5312 (4x2 Matrix) --> 8154 (Splitter / Amplifier) --> 8008 (HDMI Wallplate TX) --> CAT6 --> 8008 (HDMI Wallplate RX) --> Display

I have also tried the 5704 (4x4 Matrix), and the same scenario results. I have to put an 8154 between the 5704 matrix and the 8008 wallplate for it to work. I'm using the 8154 splitters even when I don't want the video split, as it's the only way that the 8008 wallplates work...

For anyone wondering, I ordered a few of these "HDMI Voltage Inserters" to try instead of using the 8154 Splitter / Amplifier from Monoprice to "boost" the signal, as it would allow me to clean up my A/V rack some. It *did not* work. It probably does what it states that it does (inserts some additional voltage), but it didn't have the same effect as the 8154, and was not enough to drive the 8008 wallplates...